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Listen
Family Life and Children in Care
The Committee said the Government must:
49 Offer more help to parents and guardians to help them raise their children.
50 Stop any children being taken into care because their parents do not earn much money.
51 Take children's views into account in everything to do with the family or being in care, and make sure children can easily make complaints if they need to.
52 Make sure children with one or both parents in prison get the support they need. This should include help to stay in contact with their parents if this is in the child's best interests.
53 Monitor children living in foster care, children's homes or institutions, and children who are looked after by other family members. This monitoring should include regular visits to these children.
54 Work out why so many disabled children are in long-term care homes, and check how they are treated and cared for in these institutions.
55 Make sure that contact proceedings can be started to allow children separated from their parents and siblings (brothers and sisters) to have contact with their families. In Scotland, children should always be able to have contact with their family unless it's not in their best interests.
56 Provide training and education to help prepare children living in care or in institutions for adult life.
57 Take into account the recommendations made about children without parental care at the UN Committee's Day of Discussion in 2005.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child holds a Day of Discussion every year to explore a children's rights issue in more detail with governments, human rights organisations, NGOs, children, and other experts. The Committee then makes recommendations based on the debate.
58 Do more to make sure children are adopted as quickly as possible, taking into account their best interests and their culture.
59 Set up ways to check how many cases of violence, sexual abuse, neglect, bad treatment or exploitation take place in the family, in schools, in institutions and in all types of care.
60 Make sure adults working with children (including teachers, social workers, health professionals and the police) know about their duty to report and act on suspected cases of domestic violence affecting children.
61 Do more to support victims of violence, abuse, neglect and bad treatment to make sure they are not victimised (treated unfairly) again during court cases.
62 Make sure there are good services in all parts of the UK to help children who have suffered from violence, abuse, neglect or bad treatment.
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